


but past the fear

by astahfrith



Series: a willing heart [1]
Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Midoriya is a Wizard, Post-Kamino Ward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-15 23:37:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14800112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astahfrith/pseuds/astahfrith
Summary: At Kamino, All Might said those words, and that was when Izuku knew.And though he is afraid, this is a darkness Izuku swore to face, until the ends of the Universe.





	but past the fear

**Author's Note:**

> _but past my fear lies life for all-_   
>  _perhaps for me: and, past my dread,_

"It took me a while, you know," Izuku says, eventually. “To realize who you were. _What_ you were."

 

Is this what the Oath meant, when it asked him to swear to put aside fear for courage? He doesn’t feel very courageous, to be honest. Izuku’s voice may be steady, but he is shaking, because this never gets any easier, not in all the years since he sat in the dark on his bed and cried as a wizard’s light hung steady and unwavering over his palm, in all the years since he stood on that rooftop in that alien Musutafu, so like his own, except -

 

\- some days, before All Might came into his life, it was very hard not to think about that _except -_

 

 _-_ and told that One to _send me back. Next time, I won’t_ ** _ask._** He was shaking then, and he is shaking now, and he is sure that All For One, _that_ One, bound though It is, knows it.

 

All for One, who even without a face, somehow manages to look incredibly bemused. "And just what am I, my boy?" he asks, indulgent, because doesn’t _know._ “Do tell.”

 

For the longest time, All for One was a monster in the dark, an overwhelming shadow dogging his thoughts and his days ever since All Might told him the origins of One for All. But here and now, with what Izuku _knows_ a knot of resignation and disbelief and something like relief in his chest, he is shaking, but he will stand his ground, because this is a darkness he knows how to face. This is a darkness he _swore_ to face, to the ends of the Universe.

 

Izuku swallows, clenches his fists. "I'm getting there. After all, there have been plenty of evil people in the history of the worlds, people who were evil on their own terms, for their own reasons. I don’t think anyone has ever really needed help to be capable of awful, terrible things. But then All Might said those words to you. He told me they were a formality, a legacy passed down from wielder to wielder, just like One for All itself. He didn't understand what they meant. None of them ever did, except maybe your brother. _”_

 

He thinks of bright shadows in the dark. Of frustration and fear and fierce, grieving love. A silver, timeless voice telling him _now try again._

 

 _“_ But _I_ did. Do.”

 

_Do better than us._

 

A shadow of something like realization passes over All For One's face. "Boy - “

 

 _Do better than_ **_me._ **

 

Izuku continues before All For One can say anything else. “And I wondered, then, why you couldn’t just walk out of here. Powers know there’s no one here who could stop you if you really put your mind to it. Not even me - _especially_ not me. But it’s not that you can’t, is it - it’s that you _won’t_. That’s not your style. There’s no satisfaction in direct action, for you - in subverting autonomy and will. That’s not how you survive 200 years to sink your roots into all the cracks and shadows of society.”

 

All For One twitches, as though to lean forward, before he remembers his position, and thinks better of it. But he says nothing, and in the space between them, _beyond_ them and this tiny room, this tiny prison, this tiny _world,_ something stirs.

 

Memory whispers _you could be a hero here. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?_

 

A choice made willingly is always exponentially more powerful. There’s a reason that one of the most base tenets of the Art is _wizardry does not live in the unwilling heart._ But if It can manipulate you into believing that the choice that serves Its motives is the best choice - the _only_ choice?

 

_I don’t think you understand what being a hero means._

 

This, Izuku thinks, must be courage, after all. To look in the face of the first villain, the _last_ villain, the darkness at the heart of all things, to shake and to fear and to know no matter what he does, it will not be enough, will _never_ be enough, can only slow the inevitable -

 

 _I never wanted to be a hero for the power, or the prestige. All I_ **_ever_ ** _wanted -_

 

\- and to defy It, regardless.

 

\- _was to save people._

 

_(A person, a rock, a tree - a star, a world, a Universe - )_

 

He looks at All For One, and feels his heart stutter in his chest at the feeling of something dark and unfathomably, incomprehensibly ancient looking back. But he’s come too far to stop now.

 

_How can I do that if I turn my back on them?_

 

"I wonder," Izuku says, softly. "I wonder how long it's been since anyone said these words to you, and truly meant it. Decades? Centuries?"

 

_I’m sure there are heroes here. There are heroes everywhere, if you look hard enough._

 

The world around them has gone very still and silent, all of a sudden. He doesn’t know when he slipped into the Speech. Perhaps he was always speaking it. He knows he’ll never tire of the way it makes it feel like the Universe is holding its breath, leaning in to listen to whatever happens next.

 

 _So send me back. Next time, I won’t_ **_ask._ **

 

 _"_ Please, allow me the honor. _Fairest and Fallen, greetings and defiance."_

**Author's Note:**

> Aka, "AfO is Literally The Devil and Midoriya is Calling Him Out." Look, sometimes, you have to create what you want to see in the world, even if it's only understandable to like three other people and your shoe. Anyway, welcome to the first installment of what will hopefully be a series of fics in a fusion of the BNHA and Young Wizards universes. Some notes:
> 
> 1\. Not all of these will necessarily be set in the same version of this universe - this, in particular, takes place in a universe where the first wielder of One For All was a wizard, but none since, until Midoriya. Midoriya became a wizard several years before his first encounter with All Might. 
> 
> 2\. Context is kind of vague, but this takes place sometime post-Kamino. Midoriya somehow convinced All Might to get him in for a brief visitation with All For One at Tartarus. All Might knows about wizardry at this point, but Midoriya hasn't told him - or anyone, really - about this.
> 
> 2\. In any of the versions, AfO and OfA, the quirks, are manifestations of the Lone Power and the Winged Defender, with OfA passed down kind of like with the Simurgh and Penn's family in Games Wizards Play. But the relationship between TWD and the holders is more like with Ronan. They could talk to it, if they knew it was there...which is hinted at here! But that's another fic.
> 
> 3\. Whether AfO, the person, is overshadowed, like Pralaya, or just an actual manifestation of the LP, like Esmeli, I couldn't really decide. I'm leaning towards the latter because the former felt too much like justifying his actions.
> 
> 4\. This heavily references Izuku's Ordeal. Details possibly forthcoming in another fic, because what's here I came up with literally an hour ago and even I don't know the details yet, but please tell me your thoughts and theories.
> 
> These notes are getting as long as the actual fic so I'm going to stop here. I hope this was enjoyable, ask any questions you might have because I did my best to make this understandable whether you've read Young Wizards or not, but I probably didn't do as well as I wanted to. Also: read Young Wizards! It's so good! My favorite series ever! Come talk to me at the same name on tumblr/twitter about this universe, please!


End file.
